Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano resigning WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced her resignation Friday to take over the University of California system, leaving behind a huge department still working to adjust to the merger of nearly two dozen agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The former Arizona governor came to President Barack Obama’s Cabinet with plans to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, and she is leaving in the mids...

Ex-lottery official admits stealing tickets LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A former Arkansas Lottery security official pleaded guilty Friday to a long-running scheme in which he’s accused of stealing and cashing nearly a half-million dollars’ worth of scratch-off tickets. Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said the theft by Remmele Mazyck, 34, started in 2009 when the lottery launched. It wasn’t discovered until October 2012, when a clerk at a Jonesboro retailer raised questions about lottery tickets ...

Medicaid program has $62 million in trustLITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas Medicaid program was expected to endure a year of cuts to services but wound up with $62 million in its trust fund, which officials on Friday attributed to changes being made by providers to adapt to health care overhaul measures. The $4.68 billion program faced a possible shortfall of more than $100 million, which would have led to cuts in payments for nursing home care and in other areas. But Department of Hum...

AG rejects wording of gay marriage repealLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas’ attorney general rejected a proposal Friday to repeal the state constitution’s ban on gay marriage, saying the ballot measure’s wording could mislead voters into believing it would automatically legalize same-sex unions. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel told Arkansans for Equality, which wants to put the measure on the ballot for the general election in 2014, that it needs to rework the wording. The proposal must b...

US unemployment benefit applications rise to 360K WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits rose 16,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 360,000, although the level remains consistent with steady hiring. The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average increased 6,000 to 351,750. The weekly applications data can be volatile in July because some automakers briefly shut down their factories to prepare for new models and many scho...

Panel wants more information about paroleeLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Legislators on Thursday accused the Arkansas Department of Community Correction of neglecting to emphasize public safety when deciding on parole revocations and vowed to continue examining how the agency handles supervision of convicts. The agency’s director abruptly retired this month after a 2008 parolee was charged in the slaying of a teenager in Little Rock. Gov. Mike Beebe ordered a review of the Department of Community...

Congressmen back scaled-down farm billLITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas’ four Republican congressmen have voted for a scaled-down farm bill that doesn’t address funding for food stamps. U.S. Reps. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin and Steve Womack on Thursday voted for the legislation, which dropped a food stamp section included in an earlier version of the farm bill that failed before the House last month. Republicans said the food stamp part of the legislation would...

VA grants to assist homeless veterans LITTLE ROCK (AP) — US Secretary of Veterans Eric Shinseki has announced $1.3 million in federal grants to help homeless military veterans at two organizations in Arkansas. The St. Francis House in Little Rock will receive about $600,000 while Seven Hills Homeless Center in Fayetteville is to receive the remainder of the grant as part of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. The grants are among 319 awarded to agencies in all 50...

Rural fire department gets $468K grant DRIGGS (AP) — A western Arkansas town has received a more than $468,000 federal grant to purchase portable and mobile radios for firefighters. U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Mark Pryor announced Thursday that the Driggs Fire Department in Logan County will receive the grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The funding is part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which aims to strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to fire...

Bush nudges GOP on immigration as lawmakers meet WASHINGTON (AP) — Divided on immigration, House Republicans bluntly challenged President Barack Obama’s willingness to secure the nation’s borders on Wednesday, and appeared unimpressed by George W. Bush’s advice to carry a “benevolent spirit” into a debate that includes a possible path to citizenship for millions. Emerging from a closed-door meeting, GOP leaders affirmed a step-by-step approach to immigration but offered neither specifics nor...

Fla. police officers entangled in sex scandal LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a widespread sex scandal involving nearly a dozen police officers in one Florida city after a civilian crime analyst detailed trysts with the men in police and fire stations, patrol cars, motels and even in a parking lot after a memorial service for a slain officer. Sue Eberle, 37, has told officials that she had consensual and sometimes coerced sex with the officers and a firefighter, and th...

Oil rises 3 percent on signs of rising US demand NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil has shot up $11 a barrel in two weeks on rising demand in the U.S. and political upheaval in the Middle East. Gas prices are about to follow. There’s another factor: Bottlenecks that had trapped increasing amounts of domestically produced oil in the middle of the country are loosening. As that oil reaches the coasts, it can command prices more in line with costlier imported crudes. An improving U.S. economy, hi...

Back to negotiations after student loan plan fails WASHINGTON (AP) — The defeat of a student loan bill in the Senate on Wednesday clears the way for fresh negotiations to restore lower rates, but lawmakers are racing the clock before millions of students return to campus next month to find borrowing terms twice as high as when school let out. Republicans and a few Democrats blocked a White House-backed proposal that would have restored 3.4 percent interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans fo...

On tour, Giffords’ actions speak on gun control DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Thirty months after she was shot through the head, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords sits in a New Hampshire restaurant facing parents of children killed in the nation’s latest school shooting. They are here to talk political strategy, but Giffords doesn’t say much. She doesn’t have to. The 43-year-old Democrat has become the face of the fight for gun control — a woman now known as much for her actions as her w...

Dardanelle City Council deals with unkept propertiesDARDANELLE — If someone fails to maintain their residential property, they could find themselves in a little bit of trouble with the city of Dardanelle, according to a resolution passed during Monday night’s regular City Council meeting. According to Bill Smith, one of the city’s code enforcement officials, the city has had issues with residential properties that are not properly maintained. He said the resolution allows the city to contact sa...

Fire chief talks department statistics, needsRussellville firefighters put in 13,788 training hours during the first five months of the year. RFD Chief John Cochran spoke about his department during the City Council’s June 27 meeting. He said the department’s members averaged 50 hours of training each through May 31. These training hours were in various categories, including fire suppression, EMT/paramedic, vehicle extraction/rescue, rope rescue and hazardous materials. The department re...

Dover continues city employee insurance talksDOVER — The City Council discussed amending a resolution that would change city employee insurance at its regular meeting Tuesday. According to the proposed amendment, the new employee insurance system would cease to provide full family coverage for new city employees, but rather provide full individual coverage. It would also give all city employees the opportunity to opt out of the city insurance, should an individual have personal insurance...

US economy adds 195K jobs; unemployment 7.6 pct. WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers are sending a message of confidence in the economy — hiring more workers, raising pay and making the job market appear strong enough for the Federal Reserve to slow its bond purchases as early as September. The economy gained a robust 195,000 jobs in June and many more in April and May than previously thought. The unemployment rate remained 7.6 percent in June because more people started looking for jobs — a he...

Obama’s toughest sell on Guantanamo: Senate Dems WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s hardest sell in his renewed push to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be members of his own party — moderate Senate Democrats facing tough re-election bids next year in the strongly Republican South. Obama has stepped up the pressure to shutter the naval facility, driven in part by his revised counterterrorism strategy and the 4-month-old stain of the government force-feedin...

Furloughs begin for Defense Department civilians WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 650,000 civilian Defense Department workers will begin taking the first of their 11 unpaid days off next week, but the cut in salary they will see in the three months may pale compared to what officials worry could be larger scale layoffs next year. Roughly 85 percent of the department’s nearly 900,000 civilians around the world will be furloughed, according to the latest statistics provided by the Pentagon. But whi...